Next day takeaways: 3 thoughts as Connor Hellebuyck’s 40th career shutout powers Jets to victory

On Thursday evening, the Winnipeg Jets improved their record to 13-1-0 with a 1-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche. They are now the second team in NHL history to begin their season with 13 wins in their first 14 games (2007-08 Ottawa Senators). Here’s what to take away from another record-setting win inside Canada Life Centre. 

Connor Hellebuyck records 40th career shutout

“Bucky won that game for us.  It’s that simple,” Gabriel Vilardi said about his goaltender. 

Despite the Avalanche dominating the scoring chances 39-22 in all situations, Connor Hellebuyck was up to the task. He made 34 saves and recorded his second-straight shutout, which he had yet to accomplish in his NHL career. 

“Forty feels really good,” Hellebuyck said after the game. “That’s one of those milestones. One more is just the 300 wins. I’m really looking forward to that this season. Hopefully, I can achieve it, but this one feels really good.”

He has picked up right where he left off a season ago, as Hellebuyck now has a 10-1-0 record on the season, with a 1.91 goals against average and .932 save percentage. 

Jets’ historic start continues

Along with their historic record, the Jets have now put together eight-game and five-game winning streaks, and we have yet to hit the middle of November. 

Jets’ Head Coach Scott Arniel acknowledged that it wasn’t their best effort in tonight’s win but pointed to how they are still trying to round out their game, and they will take the early points in the bank. 

“We got two points,” Arniel said. “I mean we’re here in November. If we’re sitting in February, March, April, we’re probably not very happy about it. We found a way to win the hockey game. We had a good first period. After that, we were downhill. Those guys all know that (we didn’t play well). I didn’t have to say much. They all knew that. Helle put on a performance and got the two points. On to the next one.”

Gabe Vilardi scored just over a minute into the first period, giving him six goals and eight points in his last eight games. After a slow start, Vilardi and the Jets’ recent top-line success at even-strength have been some of the biggest reasons for the teams’ recent winning streak. 

The “next one” that Arniel mentioned is big, as the Jets will welcome the Dallas Stars (8-4-0) to Canada Life Centre on Saturday afternoon to wrap up their four-game homestand. 

Puck management issues lead to line changes

In the middle of the third period, the Jets shuffled their lines as Scott Arniel did not like what he was seeing. Most notably, Nikolaj Ehlers and Kyle Connor were flipped in the top six. When asked about the changes post-game, Arniel pointed to three reasons why the Jets suffered a dip in their play. 

“We didn’t break the puck out real well,” Arniel said. “We didn’t get through the neutral zone. We turned a lot of pucks over through the neutral zone, and then we didn’t have that extended zone time. We got knocked off pucks… It was kind of a 200-foot kind of problem tonight.”

The Avalanche took advantage of these mistakes, dominating the high-danger chances 10-2 in the final 40 minutes of this game. 

The final two periods of this game looked very similar to the first round of the playoffs, where the Avalanche were able to bring the offence in waves, and the Jets had no answers. Tonight, Connor Hellebuyck was the answer. 

Up next:

The Jets will finish off their four-game homestand on Saturday at 2:00 PM against the Dallas Stars before beginning their most grueling stretch of the 2024-25 season.  

When they hit the road for their road trip starting Tuesday in New York, they will not play two consecutive home games until December 8 and 10. They play two standalone home games in the middle of two three-game road trips and a six-game road trip. 

There is plenty of hockey away from home coming up for Winnipeg, who is sure thankful that they have banked all these points before this part of their schedule.